News

Overview of BREEAM New Construction 2018

Changes in BREEAM New Construction 2018 and how they will affect your build project

Environmental and sustainability rating systems have established themselves as an integral part in the UK construction process over the last decade. BREEAM New Construction 2018 was introduced earlier in the year, replacing the 2014 scheme, with the main purpose of assessing the environmental life cycle impacts of new non-domestic buildings at the design and construction stages.

But what is the scope of the changes to BREEAM New Construction 2018? Why update the scheme? And finally, what do they changes mean for you and how will they affect your build project?

BREEAM New Construction 2018

Launced nearly thirty years ago in 1990, BREEAM was originally created to set standards and ensure environmental performance that goes beyond minimum requirements and regulatory levels set out by UK Building Standards.

Earlier in 2018 saw the introduction of BREEAM New Construction 2018 which introduced some significant new technical requirements for Architects, Developers, Contractors and other building professionals to adhere to, during the construction specification process.

Why update BREEAM?

As time goes by, construction methodologies and material selections develop, and as such regulations and requirements need to follow suit. In 2014, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) introduced BREEAM New Construction 2014 with a view to updating the standards every three to four years to ensure they stayed relevant.

Updates to the scheme also provide a good opportunity to address feedback from assessors, clients and other stakeholders in a construction specification process. This ensures the standard continues to deliver better buildings and value to the client.

What are the changes to BREEAM New Construction 2018?

BRE introduced several fundamental changes to the BREEAM New Construction 2018 scheme. Key updates to the assessment criteria included measuring unregulated and embodied energy; transport; health and wellbeing developments; addressing the performance gap; and scheme alignment and ensuring robustness in a changing climate.

How will the changes affect your build project?

BRE are hopeful that changes to BREEAM New Construction 2018 to build projects will be of a positive nature. They have acted on feedback for previous versions of the scheme to add flexibility and to simplify the assessment criteria.

However, while BRE are trying to ease the complexity of the assessment processes, they are still ensuring that technical performance and construction practices are still evolving and delivering value to stakeholders and reflecting the latest industry developments, best practice standards, regulation & policy.

Would you like to discuss a BREEAM requirement?

Our experienced team provide technically competent BREEAM advice in a down-to-earth manner, working with various local authorities around the UK completing BREEAM assessments in line with their requirements.

If you would like to discuss your BREEM requirements with one of our specialist consultants, please call us on 020 3286 2016 or email info@baseenergy.co.uk